A young girl finds an eyeball in a bird's nest days after a prominent family goes missing from Blackhampton in the British Midlands. Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith of the newly formed Murder Squad out of Scotland Yard are sent to help the local constable locate the family. Not everyone though wants outsiders interfering in the small village's secrets. With every secret they expose, the risks grow that they'll never leave Blackhampton alive.
THE BLACK COUNTRY By Alex Grecian is a superbly crafted mystery with an atmosphere of foreboding that hangs in the air like coal dust. The historical setting is richly detailed, striking, and utterly fantastic. The sinking mining village of Blackhampton is sharply descriptive and peopled by a hard-working and close-knit community. But even the closest of communities harbor secrets, and every character is hiding a piece of truth that could help solve the mystery. As Day and Hammersmith investigate the disappearance of the family, they unmask the horrors hidden within the village. Grecian captures the current of fear that hangs over the village as they search for the missing. The longer the family is missing, more palpable the fear becomes in the small village's actions.
THE BLACK COUNTRY will keep your reading, tense and anxious, as it sweeps you through to the stunning conclusion.
THE BLACK COUNTRY is the second book in the Scotland Yard's Murder Squad series by Alex Grecian. Grecian balances the chilling horror of human actions with a fast-paced mystery that will not let you go until long after you've turned the last page. This is an excellent mystery and I can't wait to read more in this stellar series.
Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad returns, in the stunning new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestseller The Yard. The British Midlands. It’s called the “Black Country” for a reason. Bad things happen there. When members of a prominent family disappear from a coal- mining village—and a human eyeball is discovered in a bird’s nest—the local constable sends for help from Scotland Yard’s new Murder Squad. Fresh off the grisly 1889 murders of The Yard, Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith respond, but they have no idea what they’re about to get into. The villagers have intense, intertwined histories. Everybody bears a secret. Superstitions abound. And the village itself is slowly sinking into the mines beneath it. Not even the arrival of forensics pioneer Dr. Bernard Kingsley seems to help. In fact, the more the three of them investigate, the more they realize they may never be allowed to leave. . . .
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